I just use the camera in bulb mode with a remote shutter release. As soon as I press and hold the button, I flick the lighter. Then, as soon as flame comes out, release the shutter button. You'll get nice spark effects.

ppl say sick now

if you have a broken lighter in need of fixing go to my post to get it fixed <br/><br/>heres the link:<br/><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.instructables.com/community/do-you-have-a-broken-lighter/">http://www.instructables.com/community/do-you-have-a-broken-lighter/</a><br/>

i thought it said lighter pornography!

These flames are almost as cool as those you can make with Apophysis...
except one is digital...
and makes a better background...
but is impossible to use for a first time user...
You can't have everything.
-PKT

Also, It's very smart to light up your zippo in a room full of what looks like important papers...
LOL! Just kiddin', the photos look great.
-PKT

pyro

yes. people still say sweet. and i must say-so was this instructable

ZIPPO

I have done it before :D
It is my name

i do this a lot with my zippo
Great job

I've done this before, the pictures always turn out really beautiful.
My favorite is to take lighter-pictures outside when the sun is almost down.

Let me guess, you couldn't take a picture of your only digital camera, so you just substituted this 80s P&S. Right? :-)
K.

Im guessing you saw this on ebay in galleries of antique lighters or someone gt that idea because we started selling to people all round the world mainly due to the eyecatching photos in which people constantly asked us about it (it's no more as my dad died and I don't have time to repair and sell antique lighter)
Our best ones tended to be 1 sec shutter speed widest aperture and holding the camera in one hand and sparking the lighter with other (produces a natural looking result)

You might do even better using Photoshop and an unlit lighter. The advantage is that the hand and lighter are in clear detail (or as clear as you choose) and the flame/sparks can be any color. I prefer to use a very light gray on a fuzzy brush and adding low color highlights of yellow and blue and a touch of red. Then I use liquify to move it around, dodge to provide highlights, and the Gaussian blur tool to smooth the final result. There may be a Photoshop tutorial somewhere on the internet that covers flame and sparks, smoke, etc.. I can't recall where or when I learned this, but probably in Photoshop 3 or 4.

Here are my pics that I took with the help of this instructable, not as good as your though. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.smithartwork.com/fire.html">http://www.smithartwork.com/fire.html</a><br/>

sweet

Well my digital camera is not that great. It is about a year old. But i use mostly film and I have a Pextax K1000. It's very nice. but not super.

How old is your camera...lol

I'd just like to point out that what the camera is doing when you up the exposure is making a longer shutter speed, and possibly a larger aperture (less likely, as your photos blurred some)
Also, instead of saying 400 iso is the most light sensitive, just the the higher the number, because 400 just happens to be the highest your camera has. My camera, for example, can go up to 1600.
Otherwise, a good instructable.